SUNY

The COVID-19 pandemic and its evolving aftermath are reshaping the world around us, and myriad Long Island forces – large and small, corporate and nonprofit, industrial and academic – have risen to the challenge. Innovate Long Island presents Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus as a real-time journal of this region’s resourceful response to the greatest global challenge since World War II. Stay healthy, dear readers. Phase 2 approaches LI, but Cuomo urges caution …

By GREGORY ZELLER // State University of New York Chancellor Kristina Johnson has announced her resignation, stepping down to become the new president of The Ohio State University. Johnson, who became the 13th SUNY chancellor in April 2017 and played a key role in SUNY’s comprehensive response to 2017’s hurricane devastation in Puerto Rico, was unanimously approved as president Wednesday by the OSU Board of Trustees. She becomes the university’s 16th president, succeeding Ohio State…

By GREGORY ZELLER // From the It Takes a Village file come multiple attempts to promote inclusion at some of Long Island’s top universities, and beyond. Just weeks after Stony Brook University announced it would steer nearly $1 million of SUNY money toward a new faculty-diversity initiative, Garden City’s Adelphi University has announced the appointment of a new vice president and new executive director of diversity and inclusion. Adelphi’s equality effort, announced Friday, involves two…

By GREGORY ZELLER // Long Island’s newest college is really nothing new. Empire State College, stepchild of the State University of New York system, is all grown up, thank you: The school has been helping students, particularly working professionals, earn accredited degrees since 1971, both in-person – at 30 statewide locations and seven international sites – and, increasingly, through distance-learning opportunities. But its 6.6-acre, $14 million Empire State College at Selden – that’s new, even…

By PETER CRESCENTI // A recent Innovate LI newsletter headline – “Chefs of the future” – caught my attention: It had to be a reference to “The Honeymooners,” the classic episode in which Ralph and Norton do a live TV commercial for a crazy kitchen gadget. I had to know for sure. So, I emailed Editor Gregory Zeller, and sure enough, I was right. And we bonded like members of the Bensonhurst Chapter of the…

By GREGORY ZELLER // The joint-admissions wave continues to roll over Long Island, with Adelphi University announcing another high-profile two-fer. This time, the Garden City school has forged a collaboration with the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences that will give future pharmacists a shot at earning their bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in seven years – or less. Starting in the Fall 2020 semester, students will have two options: complete both degrees in seven…

By GREGORY ZELLER // A variety of state-funded efficiency upgrades – including new lighting, ventilation and operations-management systems – are included in a new Stony Brook University infrastructure-improvement plan. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced a comprehensive $79 million strategy to bring additional energy-efficient improvements to the Long Island jewel of the State University system. Financed and implemented by the New York Power Authority “in partnership with SUNY,” the upgrades target several SBU facilities –…

By GREGORY ZELLER // Following a popular higher-education trend, Adelphi University has forged a joint-admissions alliance that will funnel graduates straight into medical school. The Syracuse-based Upstate Medical University, to be precise, which on Tuesday joined the Garden City school to announce the Adelphi-Upstate Accelerated Scholars Program, which will feed qualified students directly into Upstate Medical’s fold beginning this fall. The new collaboration adds Adelphi to Upstate Medical’s existing list of 10 statewide Accelerated Scholars…

By GREGORY ZELLER // From the Didn’t See That Coming file comes the sudden departure of Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley Jr., who has resigned his position and will step down July 31. Stanley, who become SBU’s fifth president in July 2009, will become the 21st president of Michigan State University, according to several news reports. His decision – which follows a decade-long tenure ripe with physical expansion and award-winning faculty research – has…

By ROSALIE DRAGO // Apprenticeship is one of the most powerful weapons we have to advance Long Islanders, regional business and the local economy. It’s time to deploy it. At a time when many employers report a lack of skilled workers, employer-led training – which develops workplace skills based on the latest industry practices, while incorporating related classroom instruction – is being promoted and supported on federal and state levels as a fix for widening…

By GREGORY ZELLER // Stony Brook University dominated the field Tuesday as 18 SUNY graduate students were named candidates for prestigious National Science Foundation fellowships. All told, five State University of New York campuses were represented in this year’s NSF Graduate Research Fellowship nominees. The University at Albany, Binghamton University and the University at Buffalo each posted two nominees, and the SUNY Polytechnic Institute in upstate Oneida County added one. But SBU ruled the SUNY…

By GREGORY ZELLER // With some 50 appointed university and college presidents and two appointed chancellors under his belt, H. Carl McCall is taking a victory lap. The chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees announced his retirement this week, after 12 years on the board and eight as its chair. The 83-year-old icon – a former New York state comptroller under Gov. Mario Cuomo, New York State Senator from Manhattan…

By GREGORY ZELLER // A day-long event at Nassau Community College will dive deep into the different ways the United States and China approach the data-driven “iEconomy.” The Garden City-based school’s Confucius Institute of Business has scheduled Digital Leadership in the Data-Driven iEconomy: America’s FANG vs. China’s BAT, to run for 12 hours on Nov. 6, with in-person registration opening at 11 a.m. and a marathon program slated to follow from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30…

The New York State Senate has approved a comprehensive workforce-development package designed to train workers for in-demand, new-economy skills. Stemming from the Senate Task Force on Workforce Development, the legislation – six bills in all – would close the skills gap by improving connections between prospective employees and employers seeking skilled workers. Among the Senate legislation approved this week is a bill that would require the New York Department of Labor to collect forward-facing job…